It was a crisp sunny morning as we arrived at the airport for my first time on one of the direct charter flights operated from the island. Check-in was quite confusing as Servisair decided to check in both the Thompson Fly and the Eu-jet on the same desk, in that order, without telling the passengers.

That said we were soon sitting in the BA executive lounge (perk of my job rather part of the package) enjoying a coffee (last non alcholic drink for a while!), awaiting the arrival of the aircraft from BHX. Unfortunately due to a fuel miscalculation the aircraft was forced to fly overhead the island for some 40 minutes until sufficient fuel had been burned to land.

Once the inbound passengersw were deplaned boarding commenced very quickly as there were only 56 passengers and we were promptly pushed back for taxi out behind a Flybe Q400. We were seated in row one thanks to some friends at servisair, and it was interesting to note that the seat pockets had Sky Europe inflight mags in them. Talking to the crew they are apparently flying out of Budapest for them during the week before returning to BHX at weekends. Unfortunately the Safety cards had no such dual branding, however i have a couple spare if anyone wants one.

As soon as the Dash 8 had departed we lined up on 09 and accelerated quickly before steeply climbing out over the east of the island followed by a steep right bank overe St Helier and south towards the French coast. I must say that sitting in row one i was amazed at how quiet the F100 really is. I have flown on numberous different ones but never that far forward.

After reaching the cruise at FL310 we were served a snack by the charming crew which consisted of a cheese and pickle sandwich, small biscuit and coffee. Not a great deal i know but better than nothing and it was free!.

I must confess after eating the rest of the flight south was consumed in an attempt to sleep off the previous nights Beer and i awoke as we passed the southern coast of France shortly before starting our descent.

In no time at all we were overhead Alcudia and well into the descent, we landed 15 minutes late which wasn't too bad considering the delay leaving Jersey and taxied to the terminal where we were attached to an airbridge, far better than the remote stand parking used by some of the smaller carriers.

Overall to sum up, EU-jet were very efficient, the aircraft was very clean and quiet and the service more than acceptable. I wish them well with there future expansion plans.

I didn't know they had started operations, i knew they were planning to start scheduled flights from Manston in June/July.

I am dearly hoping to get my first Fokker 100 flight next weekend (15 May) on LHR-LBA, though the brand new bmi A319's have started to make an appearance at weekends on this route, which would also be excellent!

For those of us used to 2hrs 15- 2hrs45 for a flight to PMI from most British airports, yours of 1hr 47min illustrates well Jersey's southerly position. Just hope they can get a few more people on the flight in the weeks to come.

I can't wait for my next visit to the Channel Islands, I always adore going there. I'll be flying in on 8 Sept to JER from MAN on the daily BACX RJ100 and then getting the Aurigny inter-island flights to/from GCI (perfect scenario would be a Trislander flight on one leg and a Shorts 360 on the other!) before returning on the (dreaded) 11 Sept from JER on a BACX Dash 8.

Capital.
Let me know the exact dates i have some friends at Aurigny ops and cou;d advise which flights to get. To be honest in recent months there has only been S360's on the JER-GCI, i do it about once a fortnight.

With reagrds to the loads on the PMI, the flight i was on was the last outbound rotation of the series before Menorca starts next week. That plus the date been one week after the school half term accounts for the realtively light load.

With reagards the flight time, its a gem on the way home! SOme friends left PMI 30 mins behind us via LGW with EZY and BA and arrived back in Jersey at 21:15 against our 15:05!!!

My flights on JER-GCI are already booked so I'll just have to take what comes!

I'd be quite pleased to sample the Shorts 360 though, its such a rare breed on passenger flights these days and its a type I've not flown on yet. Guess I can try GCI-ACI for a guaranteed Trislander flight!

For reference my flights are as follows:

8 SeptJER-GCI GR877 dep:16.35 arr:16.50

11 SeptGCI-JER GR874 dep:16.00 arr:16.15

Back on topic, was the JER-PMI flight operated by an EAF 732 until their recent financial troubles?

Have you flown on any of the other charters to Spain from JER in the past? Are loads generally good?

The direct services between JER and variuos destinations around the med were in the past operated jointly by two local travel agents, using the Palmair/EAF 737-200, although occasionally for flights to italy and turkey bigger stuff has been used (Azzura 73G , Astreus 73G , TCX 320 etc). In the autumn of last year the two had a disagreement over various issues and the descision was taken to split the two. Therefore we have two programmes running now, one using EU jet and the other still using Palmair.

With reagrds to the EAF situation as i understand it the agreements made between Palmair and tour operators remains unchanged as the creditors have given approval for them to continue operating (don't suppose there much potential revenue to be had from a 732 from the point of view of the creditors).

The loads are actually very good, with 90% enjoyed on the EUJ and i believe nearly 100% with the palmair. Incidentally the only other flights ooperated direct on this basis are the SATA flights to Funchal taking home the migrant workers which can range from one per month to daily depending on the time and season.